A Quick Book Recommendation

My Comp 201 professor handed out an book excerpt today to compliment her lecture on how to write better/different writing styles and much to my joyous surprise it was an excerpt from on of my all time favorite books.

Book might not be the best word.  Yet, it's not exactly a memoir either.  Stephen King's On Writing is half memoir, half story-time, and half instruction manual... yes three halves. Writing almost entirely in a conversational tone you feel as though Mr. King, arguably one of the most well-known and prolific writers of our time, is sitting across the table from you at a coffee shop simply telling stories and giving advice.

If you enjoy reading, writing, or Stephen King I highly recommend this book. The single greatest thing that I got from this book was the affirmation (not that I necessarily needed it - more it was just nice to know someone felt the same way) that I was a writer at heart. If you think of yourself as a writer, read this book and then ask yourself where you stand.  Below a little blurb that you should pay particular attention to:

"Talent renders the whole idea of rehearsal meaningless when you find something at which you are talented, you do it (whatever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes are ready to fall out of your head.  Even when no one is listening (or reading, or watching), every outing is a bravura performance, because you as the creator are happy. Perhaps even ecstatic."

Stephen King, On Writing

He goes on to mention that this is true no matter what thing it is that you are passionate about. Whether it be sports, writing, singing, or underwater basket-weaving the above will hold true.

King fills his book with little tidbits of advice such as this throughout as well as entertaining you with personal anecdotes and insights into the drive behind his books.  Overall it is incredibly well written (shock I know!) book and well worth the time and money involved in finishing this book.  It's on the Amazon Kindle store and on the shelf at any major bookstore and you should definitely look at your local bookstore first - always support local businesses!!

Anywhos, let me know what y'all think about it.

Happy reading :)